Seven

Chapter 73

What?

Seven eyes me like a hawk. Waiting for some kind of reaction but it doesn't come. I am frozen, literally stopped in time. My body does not move, my words are completely lost, lungs unable to intake a breath. The most I can muster is a single blink and even that seems to take effort.

Although my physical self is shocked into paralysis my mind is jumping from thought to thought at a rapid pace.

Victor killed my parents?!

Why?

How?

How did he know my parents?

Did he even know my parents or is this some kind of sick coincidence?

Did Seven know? This entire time he's known me, did he know?

He sat next to me in his car while I told him about my parents death, he sat there and listened but the whole time he already knew the truth?

Oh my god.

Oh my god!

As if Seven has some kind of link to my inner thoughts he begins to speak again.

"I didn't know any of this till that night I left. He told me then, he admitted to it and to..." His words fade as he seems to struggle with the next bit. With a frustrated grunt to clear his throat and a swipe of his hair Seven continues.

"He admitted that you were there that night. That he thought he had killed you too, but his bullet missed its intended target." Seven's conflicted green eyes drop to my chest and like a reflex reaction my hand jumps to my side, feeling over the scar torn into my skin there.

Like a scene from a horror film my mind is flashed with a short snipped of something. I feel the burning pain in my side, the feeling of blood soaking my nighty and making it stick to my body. I can hear the voice of my younger self crying, calling out for my mother. The awful scene fades just as fast as it appears. Like a terrible nightmare the details are fuzzy but that was no nightmare. That was a memory. A memory that has been buried deep in my mind, hidden in the darkest of places never to see the light. I had thought I had simply forgotten a lot of memories about my childhood and parents but perhaps rather than forgetting I have simply repressed them. I have an awful feeling there is a lot I may have left hiding in those shadowed places. And that perhaps Seven is going to shine his torch on some of them.

"Victor convinced me that you were using me to get revenge for your parents deaths. And I was stupid enough to believe him. I hope you know how sorry I am for letting him get in my head like that, for making me turn against you. I didn't see it then but I know what he's capable of now, and the motives he had by taking you away from me." Seven's eyes drop to the floor ashamed. It seems so obvious to me that Victor would lie to manipulate Seven. But I can see how easy it would be to fall into those manipulations when paired with such damning evidence. Especially when I myself knew so little, or at least shared so little.

Still unsure of what to say or do Seven continues to fill my silence with more information and just when I think I'm over the shock he hits me with another revelation that is even more shocking.

"I don't know how much you know about your parents. But I know how important it is to you, being a history enthusiast, that you would want to know your own history. More specifically your parents and who they were." Seven flicks the end of his nose with his knuckle before clasping his hands together on his lap. I can tell he seems nervous once again to tell me what he's going to which only makes me more apprehensive.

What does he know about my parents?

"I know you think your parents last name is Kapley, but it's not. Your parents were Evangelina and Jacob Costello." Seven says but he doesn't know that I actually just found this out for myself. The fact that I know he's telling the truth makes me conscious of the fact that everything he's telling me is also probably the truth.